The great London sell-off continues

[Ignitionnet]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londo...n-9287440.html

The Canary Wharf HQ of banking giant HSBC is set to become the UK’s most expensive ever building after being put up for sale for £1.1 billion.

The 656ft Docklands tower, designed by Lord Foster and where 8,000 people work, has been the bank’s global head office since 2003.

Its owner, South Korea’s national pension fund, has opted to cash in on London’s fast-recovering commercial property values amid huge demand from overseas investors for trophy buildings.

The scary part is that the block was owned by South Korea previously. Power stations owned, built and run by the French and Chinese, huge swathes of London in foreign ownership, I'm just waiting for a giant Qatari blimp to drop grappling hooks into London and carry it off.

The thing that worries me along with this is that the sell-off has spread outside of London and is ramping up real estate prices in other parts of the south-east.

I am not one for protectionism but this needs to stop. Commercial property you can perhaps make the case but residential real estate being sold off wholesale to foreign interests is costing us, the taxpayers, a lot of money and costing our economy.

However it won't stop - our current account deficit is awful and relies on selling off of property to make it slightly less awful.

---------- Post added at 16:45 ---------- Previous post was at 16:39 ----------

I should point out why I specifically mentioned Qatar.

They both double as purchasers of big bits of London and the second largest financial contributor to terrorism behind Saudi Arabia.

[Taf]

The foreign sell-off is obviously behind many rent-hikes too.

[ianch99]

Totally agree with the OP. The problem is the Tories will not intervene in the market and I doubt Labour will so how is this solved?

[Osem]

Rents are going up but then many properties in what were 'dodgy areas' not that long ago are being renovated to a very high standard as those areas have become desirable hot spots. Rents/prices then increase accordingly. Short of linking property ownership to residence or imposing some sort of tax or premium on foreign buyers, I can't see any way of stopping foreign buyers doing what lots have Brits. have done - buying up holiday *** investment properties overseas which often remain empty for large parts of the year.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by ianch99

Totally agree with the OP. The problem is the Tories will not intervene in the market and I doubt Labour will so how is this solved?

ukip